Dugtrio Pokemon Card Guide: Every Japanese Print Worth Knowing

The Japanese Dugtrio Cards Verified in This Guide

Searching Limitless’s Japanese card database for Dugtrio by species returns 12 prints, all sorted under “R” on the search index itself:

Note the mismatch on the first two rows: the index sorts every result under a blanket “R,” but the SV2a 51 card page identifies it as Uncommon, and the M2a 206 card page identifies it as an Art Rare. Where we’ve only seen the index listing, we’re not citing illustrator or HP for that print.

Beyond these 12, two more Dugtrio prints are currently listed on our site — a 1997 Old Back print and a 2001 Base Expansion Pack print — that don’t turn up in Limitless’s search at all. Limitless’s coverage of pre-2001 Japanese sets isn’t complete, so treat the totals here as the prints we’ve verified rather than a final count.

The 1997 Original: Dark Dugtrio from the Team Rocket Expansion (PMCG4)

The earliest Dugtrio print we list doesn’t show up on Limitless at all — a direct card-page lookup for PMCG4/51 returns a 404. The set corresponds to the Japanese “Rocket Gang” (ロケット団) expansion, known in English as Team Rocket. Per Bulbapedia, it released in Japan on November 21, 1997, as the 4th numbered Japanese set, holding 65 cards in total. Dugtrio appears in this set as “Dark Dugtrio,” a Rare Holo Fighting-type card; the English Team Rocket equivalent is #6/82.

Our own listing catalogues this slab as “No.051,” but that number doesn’t match either the 65-card Japanese checklist or the 82-card English checklist directly — likely an internal catalog reference rather than an official Team Rocket print number, and we’re not asserting it as one until we can verify it further. This print uses the 1996–2001 “Old Back” card design; see our Old Back vs New Back explainer for how to spot that design at a glance, and our Japanese Old Back cards guide for the wider category this print sits in.

Three Cards Named “Team Rocket”: Don’t Mix Them Up

Two of the prints above share a name, and it’s worth separating them. The 1997 “Dark Dugtrio” comes from the original Japanese Team Rocket expansion (Rocket Gang, PMCG4) — a vintage set built around the anime villain team. The M2a 206 card, “Team Rocket’s Dugtrio,” is a completely different card, printed 28 years later as a modern reprint/reimagining on the same theme, from an unrelated 2025–26 set (M2a, “Mega Dream ex”). Same theme, different cards, different eras — the M2a print is not a reprint of the 1997 original.

There’s also a third, unrelated product using the same branding: SV10, “Glory of Team Rocket”, a 2024 Scarlet & Violet-era set. We haven’t verified whether that set carries a Dugtrio print, and it isn’t an anchor in this guide — it’s noted here only so the naming doesn’t get confused with the two Dugtrio prints above.

For the wider picture of every card named after the villain team, see our Team Rocket Pokemon Card Family guide — a cross-species survey covering both our vintage Dark Dugtrio and the modern Team Rocket’s Dugtrio concept. This guide is a Dugtrio-only deep dive across every set, not just the Team Rocket-branded ones. Our Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex card guide covers a sibling single-card guide using the same modern naming convention.

Chase Prints and What Makes Them Collectible

None of the individually verified Dugtrio prints sit at a secret-rare or full-art tier in the modern sense — SV2a 51 is an Uncommon, and M2a 206’s Art Rare is the highest rarity tier we’ve confirmed on any print in this guide. What makes the two vintage anchors collectible is age and design era rather than a printed rarity symbol:

• The 1997 Team Rocket print (PMCG4) is collectible for its production window — the Old Back card design ran from 1996 to 2001 and was retired afterward, and Bulbapedia documents this print as a Rare Holo within that 65-card set.
• The 2001 Base Expansion Pack print (e1) is Dugtrio’s other vintage anchor, matching the 128-card Japanese checklist Bulbapedia confirms for that release.
• PSA 10 grading itself is what elevates either of these vintage slabs above an ungraded copy of the same print — a gem-mint certification applies on top of whichever set and rarity the card originally carried.

The Art Rare M2a 206 sits differently: its collectibility comes from being a current, still-releasing modern reprint on a recognisable villain-team theme, rather than from age.

Where to Buy Dugtrio Cards from Tokyo

We ship Japanese graded singles and sealed product worldwide out of Tokyo with tracked delivery. For Dugtrio specifically, both currently listed prints are vintage PSA 10 singles — the 1997 Team Rocket Old Back print and the 2001 Base Expansion Pack print. For the wider graded-card selection, browse our PSA 10 graded card collection.

Among Dugtrio’s modern prints, the Team Rocket’s Dugtrio AR (M2a 206/193) is currently listed at ¥5,305 (~$33). SV2a 51 comes from Pokemon Card 151, covered set-wide in our SV2a card list, and M2a 206 belongs to the same Team Rocket-branded reprint wave covered in our Team Rocket Pokemon Card Family guide and our Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex card guide. For any of the ten remaining index-only prints, or a different Dugtrio print entirely, request a quote via our Quick Order page — there’s no timing attached to sourcing requests, but it’s the fastest way to check availability on a specific print.